A typical automobile or other vehicle sound system includes a source of an electronic audio signal in which is then input to speakers to transform the electronic signal into audible sound for the listening pleasure of the vehicle occupants. The source of an audio signal is often one or more of an AM/FM radio, a tape player, or a compact disk (CD) player. Each of these sources of audio signal receives input from a particular form of media which varies in accordance with the particular audio signal source, such as a radio, tape player, etc. The audio signal source then transposes the input signal from the media into an electronic output signal to the audio speakers. The audio speakers receive the electronic signals and decoded the electronic signal into audible sounds output by the speakers.
Overall, the underlying formats of in-vehicle audio systems has remained relatively stagnant. Developments such as FM stereo, cassette tape players, and compact disk players have generally improved the quality of the sound systems by improving the input media to the sound system. Other developments, such as graphic equalizers, and four, six, eight (or more) speaker sound systems have improved the overall quality of the in-vehicle listening experience.
While the quality of input media and overall fidelity of vehicle sound systems has evolved and improved, the vehicle sound system operators have remained relatively passive operators. Their input to the system usually consists of changing the radio station, fast forwarding, or rewinding cassette tapes, or randomly selecting the available tracks of the compact disk. However, all of the above-mentioned acts relate to the selection of music, not the active making of music. The operator of current in-vehicle sound systems merely selects the input media and a specific track thereon so that the desired electronic output signals can be generated to the speakers. However, no vehicles sound system enables the user to participate in actually generating the input signals to the vehicle sound system so that the sound system can then generate the corresponding electronic signal to drive the speakers to provide an audible output.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an in-vehicle sound system in which the user interacts with the sound system in order to generate musical input signals for mixing with traditional vehicle audio signals for output through the speaker system.